Why Scores of Fish Went Belly-Up at Los Angeles Seaside

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Thousands of anchovies turned up dead in Southern California's
Marina del Rey over the weekend after suffocating in the harbor,
state officials said.

A fish
die-off like this hasn't been seen in recent memory at
Marina del Rey, a coastal community just north of Los Angeles
International Airport, said Carol Baker, a spokeswoman for the
Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors.

Authorities were first alerted to the foul-smelling mess Saturday
night (May 17), and county officials used large nets to scoop out
the carcasses. On Sunday, they filled about 175 30-gallon (114
liters) bags with fish; each bag weighed 30 to 40 lbs. (13 to 18
kilograms), Baker told Live Science. As of Monday afternoon,
there was still more work to be done, as dead fish that had been
lurking below the surface were still floating to the top, Baker
said.

CDFW officials said fish die-offs are not unusual, but they
collected samples of the carcasses for further analysis.

Low oxygen levels were blamed for the die-off of millions of
sardines discovered one morning in March 2011 at King Harbor
Marina in Redondo Beach, California. At the time, the
Los Angeles Times reported that researchers found toxins in
the dead fish that suggested a noxious algae
bloom may have contributed to the mass kill. Algae blooms can
consume massive amounts of oxygen in the water,
creating dead zones. Some species of algae even produce
neurotoxins that are deadly to people. For example, humans
can die of paralytic shellfish poisoning if they eat shellfish
that have fed on Alexandrium catenella, a type of
algae responsible for so-called red tides.